Andrew Lam is a journalist, commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered, and an editor with New America Media, a national collaboration of 2,000 ethnic news organizations. His essays have appeared in dozens of newspapers including the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

In the age of globalization, there’s a caveat that often rings true: “You know your culture is a big hit when somebody else is trying to sell it back to you!” Nowhere is this more obvious than the example of the run away box office smash, Kung Fu Panda, and its sequel. A wildly successful animation produced by Steven Spielberg in 2008 about a panda who wants to learn kung fu and his bumbling way toward greatness, the movie became the biggest box office hit in China’s history.